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Re: Weeks



Several years ago, while finishing up my PhD at Catholic University, I met
a Priest by the name of Father Manny Carrara who was a relatively well
know astronomer and eventually became Principle Scientist and Astronomer
of the Vatican Observatory.

Father Carrara said that the 7-day Sabbath could be traced back to a time
well before Moses to approximately the time of Abraham. Manny said that a
calendar reckoning that divided the lunar cycle up into quarters was in
common usage by many cultures (including the Babylonians). Again, this
division went back to the time of Abraham (though it could not be
documented to have originated with the tribe of Abraham.

He indicated that the formal association of the 7-day Sabbath with Moses
was thought to come only from the fact that at the time of Moses and his
"adopted" father, the Pharaoh Setti, the "overseer Nathan convinced the
Egyptian officials to institute the "official" Sabbath night in which the
Jews were allowed to stop their labors just before sundown to return to
their hovels.

Father Carrara also said that they were NOT given the Sabbath off from
work. It seems that the Jews of the time had a 7-day work week as they
were all held as captives of Egypt (overseers like Nathan who had a
relatively good life were still just slaves).

It's been too many years since those times at Catholic U., and I may well
not remember all of the details that Manny had given. On the other hand,
from knowing Father Carrara, I know that when he said something, one could
be confident in its validity (or at least in its accuracy as well as was
then known).

+=================================+

On Mon, 9 Apr 2001, Jim Green wrote:

It is likely that the seven-day week as we know it has run uninterrupted
since the time of Moses, and possibly much longer than that.

John, please say what is your basis for this.

Did the Sabbath of Moses always follow the previous Sabbath by 7 days?

At the time of Moses was there an understood fixed exact unvarying 7 day
week as we have today --- sort of?


Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen


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